Pavi Dinamani

I knew I wasn't the only one that felt shattered after a lay-off and wanted to share my journey so others could relate. I joined forces with my best friend to create the 9to5 MisFit community to address all things unemployment-related, talk about the things no one talks about, and ultimately find a creative solution out of it.

I was raised in Dubai all the way up until high school. I was that Indian kid who was good at math and science. I was also fairly creative and artistic, but decided to take up Chemical Engineering because of my conservative upbringing. I moved to the States when I was 17 to pursue my undergrad at Texas A&M University. During my time there, I realized that I was a MisFit not only because I was shy and an immigrant kid, but because I had reverse culture shock from fast-paced Dubai to the small-town of College Station. I also struggled with being overweight as a child. Being a chubby 17 year old in America didn’t make me feel any better. I was anorexic and bulimic for a while. With the help of friends and family I got through that phase. That’s when it hit me, the power of people and community. Helping people was my goal. I worked at the University Writing Center to help other ESL students with their technical writing. I ‘spoke’ their Ianguage as an immigrant student myself and was able to relate to them.

Over the years, I got sucked into the comforts of corporate life, but I still felt like something was missing. I worked as an engineer in Canada and the States. I moved to Mumbai for a year to pursue fashion to indulge my creative side as well. I realized the emotional connection to people was what was missing. Recently, I got laid off from my Oil & Gas job, and I received little to no help on how to deal with being unemployed. There wasn’t a real person who helped me get through this phase mentally or emotionally. People never talked about being unemployed either. My best friend happened to quit her job at the same time and I decided to go into business with her and start a YouTube Channel to share my story, help people, and take the stigma out of unemployment. One thing led to another, and we became BizLatte - an online platform that is authentic and strives to help millennials like me.